Lindsay Taylor - High School and College

High School and College

Taylor attended Chandler High School in Chandler, Arizona, where she helped lead her team to two regional championships, and as a senior, she helped lead them to the Arizona State Championship. She averaged 19.2 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.1 blocks in her final year as a prepster. During a game in her junior year, she scored a career-best 31 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. She played for the AAU Arizona Elite, where she guided the team to the 17-Gold National Championship in 1998 at the age of 17.

Taylor later became famous during her NCAA career at UC Santa Barbara, playing center for their women's team. She was (and still is) the tallest women's basketball player in the school's history, and she attended the same classes as fellow WNBA players Kayte Christensen and Kristen Mann.

Taylor redshirted (delayed) her first year, (1999–2000). In 2000–2001, Taylor capped an impressive rookie season by earning the Big West Freshman of the Year award, second team all-conference and All-Big West Tournament honors. She was twice named Big West's Player of the Week: January 15 and January 29. Taylor scored 20 or more points three times, with her career high of 24 coming against Boise State on January 21, 2001. Her field goal percentage in Big West Play of 65.0% was the highest percentage in the conference, and she later had 17 double-digit performances, including nine of her last 11 games and 13 of her final 16. It was during her second season at Santa Barbara that Taylor grew her final inch, something she was unaware of until she was measured later on, reaching her full and trademark height of 6 ft 8 inches. She was also selected as Big West Freshman of the Year.

In 2001–2002, she earned her second Big West All Conference Honors. She missed two games – vs. Northridge (Jan. 6,2002) and Fullerton (Feb. 6,2002) because of soreness in her lower back. Her third season(2002–2003) was capped by an honorable mention Associated Press All-American recognition, Big West Player of the Year honors and her second consecutive conference tournament MVP award. She also delivered 28 consecutive free-throws during her 2002–2003 campaign.

During Taylor's senior year (2003–2004), her UCSB Gaucho squad received their 8th consecutive Big West Conference Title with a 27–7 record and won the Big West Tournament, in which Taylor won her third consecutive MVP award. The Gauchos upset Colorado and Houston to get to the NCAA Sweet 16 until losing to defending champion Connecticut, which had fellow WNBA teammate Diana Taurasi. She notched her 1,000th point as a Gaucho at Illinois on February 13, 2003, and moved her score into 13th place on UCSB's career scoring list. She only needs 500 points to break the school's highest-ever career scoring record, held by Kristi Rohr.

On November 20, 2003 Lindsay scored a team-high of 12 points. Taylor was the only Gaucho player to be in double-figures and the only visiting player to make half her field goal tries, sinking four out of eight.

On November 25, 2003 Lindsay scored a game-high of 23 points and became UCSB's record holder in career blocked shots and the school's all-time leader in career blocked shots with 181 points. On November 28 she scored a game-high 20 points as the Gauchos won a match to 4 to 1. Lindsey scored seven of her 20 points during the 19–4 second half run and extended the then nation's second longest home winning streak to 27 straight games. Later on December 16 she led all Gaucho players with a game high 23 points, grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds and also matching her personal best of six blocked shots. On December 28 Lindsay finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds for her third consecutive double-double and 19th of her collegiate career.

Taylor has said one of her biggest developments in college was to build her strength up. Despite pulling down 7.3 rebounds per game, she counted rebounding as a weakness of hers and would continue to work hard on it to improve.

Lindsay graduated from Santa Barbara in 2004. Her collegiate career held many distinctions at the time, such as the all-time leader in points: 1,755, most blocked shots: 242, and field goal percentages: 558, in UC Santa Barbara history.